George Washington." This paper fell into the hands of a British officer who sent it to Sir Henry Clinton. Sir Henry sent for " E. H." and after some conversation on other topics showed him his own note with Washington's endorsement, and said, "whose hand writing is that?" The man replied, It is that of Elisha Hadden, the spy whom you hanged yesterday." The calm self-possession of the man quieted Sir Henry's suspicions ; and E. H. left the presence of the British Commander, and never visited him again. It was from a citizen of Bedford, Mr. Jay, that Fenimore Cooper, during one his visits to our town, learned the simple facts in the career of Enoch Crosby, upon which our great novelist based his " Harvey Birch, the spy of the neutral ground," a romance which has been translated into the languages of modern Europe, and also, it is said, into Turkish and Arabic.

His informant had been a member of the New York Committee of Safety, in the beginning of the revolution ; and Enoch Crosby had been the most skillful and faithful of his agents, passing with the Americans as a British Spy and incurring constant and great dangers. This member of the Committee of Safety having been appointed to a foreign mission, reported to Congress before his departure the important services rendered by this agent, and a sum of money was voted as a compensation. When in a secret interview at night he was offered the gold, he declined it with the remark, " that it was not for gold that he had served his country. r- Thus it appears that Bedford did her part in her heroic days.6